Finding a Place of Your Own: Starting Out

One of the most daunting challenges of anyone who’s out to live independently is finding a place to stay. I’ve been living on my own since 18- and I’d like to think that I’ve tried out all kinds of living arrangements. Enough to pass on some wisdom to people who’s seriously considering the bachelor lifestyle.

Your options in terms of living arrangements totally depends on your incoming cash flow. A typical 9-to-5 white collar job in Metro Manila is barely enough. At Php10,000-15,000 a month for someone starting out in 2008, it does present itself as a challenge, even if you are single and without any dependents.

Let’s assume that you are making that much, and let’s assume you’re single, and you have no one else to worry about but yourself for now- don’t go blowing away your whole monthly salary on rent. Yes, you control your own cash now, but you’ll need to set aside some for your…

• Daily expenditures. This includes transportation, food, and even a modest allowance.
• Monthly bills. Electric and water. Also, your mobile phone/s, landline, cable TV and internet.
• Weekend money. You do need to spend some on yourself, you know.
• Savings.

So that leaves you with about 20 to 30% of your monthly income just on rent alone. What are your options?

If you have about Php2,000 to Php4,500 a month allotted for your own place, you may consider a couple of things:

1. You can rent a bedspace. A number of people rent out these modest-sized rooms which you actually share with 3 or more people, depending on the arrangements. Renting bedspace is not more than that: you have your own bed, some closet space for your stuff, maybe even a desk- not unlike dormitory conditions back in college.

Pros: it’s cheap. It’s available just about anywhere- particularly near business and commercial districts and schools/universities. Cons: you get what you pay for; so there’s not much in the way of privacy, you’re sharing a bathroom with everybody else on the floor, and if you’re unfortunate enough, you end up with roommates that go through your stuff.

2. You can rent a room. If you’re lucky enough, you might actually be able to find yourself a house that’s willing to rent out a room for your own. Sure you have your own privacy, and your stuff’s a lot more secure, but it might be a stretch to have your own bathroom. In any case, it’s a step up from #1.

Pros: Improved privacy and security. Cons: Just a little more expensive, and chances are, you’re probably still sharing a bathroom with others.

3. Get some friends together and rent an apartment. Sure Php2,000 to Php4,500 isn’t much, but if there are three or four of you, and if you pool your money together, you might actually get yourself a fairly good deal.

Pros: At least you get to pick who you’re staying with. Shared resources. Shared bills. Even better if you and your homies all get along. Cons: Gotta come down hard if someone’s late with rent or the monthly bills. Sometimes, you find out after a while that you don’t get along with some of your homies.

Remember, it takes some sacrifices at first. But as you climb up the ranks at work, or at least find other sources of income or improved livelihood, then your living conditions can improve as well. It’s all part of building character: you get to appreciate where your hard-earned money goes, and you get better at spotting opportunities and better deals for yourself.

Cheers, everyone!

Time For Me To Get A New DSLR!

I got this renewed interest in dSLRs, seeing how my trusty little 5.1-megapixel Sony Cybershot can now be easily out-pixeled by a Nokia N82.

See, when a mobile phone can out-shoot your own digital cam, it’s probably time to get new hardware. Which is why I’m really out to find myself a nice little dSLR. On another blog of mine, I actually featured some of the cameras I looked up, and since then, I’ve been scouring the internet for the best possible deals as far as a dSLR goes.

It was then that I found this cool online site for people looking for cams (just like me!)- Camera World Auction. Turns out, it’s an online venue that aims to hook up anyone who wants a camera with people who have em. So it seems to me a great place to look for that Canon EOS 400D I want for myself- great camera for people stepping up from a compact digital to a dSLR, btw.

The site has other great stuff worth checking out- not just cams. And another cool thing is an ongoing promo where you can sign up and register to win a new iPod shuffle at Camera World Auction.

So go check it out, and don’t mind me scoping out a good deal for that Canon EOS 400D I want (pictured just above), with all kinds of lenses and accessories. Time to get my Cybershot a bigger brother.

Cheers, everyone!

The Quest For Financial Independence

As someone who’s been employed straightaway out of college for the past 14 or 15 years (as of this writing), I’d say it’s been quite an experience working for some of the best companies in my chosen industry.

I’m actually thankful for the opportunity to have immersed myself in the frontlines, build up my network, and learn about real-world skills every time I had the chance.

Then again, after a while, you get to realize that, while it has all been very rewarding, maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe it’s time I had a say on exactly what kind of life I want for myself, and not have to conform to the dictates of, say for example, a traditional family-run corporation.

It all boils down to answering a simple question: what exactly is it you want for yourself? For me, the answer was simple. I want control. I’d like to do whatever I want lifestyle-wise and work-wise without having to worry about what people think about how I manage my deadlines and deliverables. I’d like to do the kind of work I want to do- to give myself a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, rather than giving that to another corporate entity. I’d like to spend time with the ones that matter most to me- my family, my friends, and myself.

But can it be done? I’m sure there have been a lot of other people out there who want to get out of the proverbial rat race. I’ve asked myself that question several times before, but it isn’t until now that I’ve had that perfect moment of clarity, and that I can answer “Yes, it can be done” with a strong sense of conviction and passion.

Yes it can be done.

The path of the entrepreneur is not easy. But it can be done, and it can definitely be very rewarding. Fortune favors the brave, it has been said. So if you want to seize the day, you have to take a leap of faith.

I’ve stared down that precipice several days ago. And I jumped. I have to say, I’ve never felt so liberated in my entire life.

This is the day I walk a new path.

And you’re all welcome to walk with me.

Cheers, everyone.

This Is What I Dig About Saturdays…

I woke up not more than 30 minutes ago- and here I am hunkered down in front of my PC blogging away while I got Creative Media Player cranking out some of my favorite tunes.  At this very moment, Josh Verdes is singing “Home”.  There’s something Mayer-esque about his style, and this song in particular reminds me of “Your Body Is A Wonderland”.

I find Saturday mornings as a perfect time to catch up on my blogging.  As you all know, I probably have at least 5 active blogs going on right now, all on a particular topic.  I realized that, looking through the  ‘Manage Posts’ tab, it turns out that I tend to amass quite a number of unfinished drafts.  This blog alone has five entries that need some finishing.  So it seems I have my work cut out for me today :).

Days like these are great for reading other people’s blogs too.  Thanks to PageFlakes (and thanks to Andrian Lee of AsiaPay for so recommending it), it’s so much easier to keep track of all my favorite blogs.  I can be really all too focused on work on weekdays that I tend to miss out on some noteworthy events that may have transpired over the week- and a quick review of blogs serves as a good way to bring myself up to speed.

For instance, while I’ve been busy at the radio station, there seems to be some activity on Multiply on a post of mine on Yahoo’s 10 Top Recommended Restaurants in Metro Manila.  I like it when friends of mine and friends of friends take time to drop in and give me their two cents’ worth.  And from the discussion on that post, it seems I’ll go try out a couple new restos this weekend- Sala in J. Nakpil is probably worth checking out, and maybe this Chocolat in SM Mall of Asia, or Conti’s in Serendra.

So I’ll probably end up working on my backlogs for a couple hours before heading out to the gym and get some chores done.  Oh the usual- groceries, pet supplies, laundry- nothing too exciting.  Cristina and I have ourselves the rest of the afternoon/evening to go visit a spa, watch a movie and have a leisurely dinner.  Then I’ll meet up with my friends much later in the evening to just hang out.

And yeah, I’ll most likely write about those too.  So check you all out soon.

Cheers, everyone.

Why Shouldn’t Your Blog Be Your Home Page?

Google has always been my default home page for as long as I can remember.  Lately though, I’ve noticed that when I fire up my Firefox browser, I check out three things right away: mail (on my gmail account), Facebook (alright, so I’m probably marginally addicted…), and Multiply (…marginally addicted to social networking!).

From there, I’d go to check on my usual websites- check out some entertainment news, or the latest music chart movements, or the latest news in gaming- or do some online business like pay some bills or something.

The rest of my day will be spent blogging, and linking references into my blog, or checking out any other variety of social networking and social bookmarking sites from YouTube to Technorati.  I’ve gone to the point of actually spending more than 8 hours a day online- including the time I spend in front of the PC after work- which is to say I’m either playing World of Warcraft or doing even more blogging.

I suppose this is all really about putting some much-needed order into my life.  There’s just so much going on already, and there’s probably much more going on later on, so I suppose I’ll have to make way for new stuff coming through.

So the first order of business is to set this blog “The Life and Times of The Renzie Man” as my home page.  Let’s see how that works out.  Gonna work on getting this blog just a little bit more functional: at least as far as we can fine-tune it- the free version of WordPress doesn’t seem to support some of the things I’d like to have just now.

Gonna put more link lists, and RSS feeds and widgets on the side.  Just to make this an easier springboard to get into other sites. It also means more updates from time to time, probably on a more daily basis.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Fixing and Re-positioning This Blog.

To be completely honest, I may have neglected this blog a bit- it’s been weeks since I last posted anything here. Mainly because I’ve been working on a few other projects these past couple of months.

The good thing is that is has given me a sort of clarity- an understanding of what this blog is supposed to be in the grand order of things.

I was just reading Aaron Wall’s SEO Book the other day (which is a highly recommended read, if you haven’t checked it out yet), and it sorta gave me an idea of how to go about fixing up my site.

Simply put, I have to consider three very basic things:

1. Who’s my target audience? Or more like, who would I want my blog to appeal to?

2. What do I plan to offer? Exactly what kind of content do I plan to put in “The Life and Times of The Renzie Man?”

3. What makes this blog different from all the millions of other blogs out there?

Those things considered, lemme go ahead and figure out what this blog really is all about. Here we go…

My Intended Target Market.

Who do I want to talk to? I want to reach out to an online audience who’d like to know how it is to live in the Philippines, from the point of a 30-something dude. That means reaching out to all kinds of travellers, locals interested in the bachelor lifestyle, my fellow Filipinos abroad who’d like to have a glimpse of home, and pretty much anyone genuinely interested in me- though I can’t imagine who, and exactly what kind of people those would be :).

What Kind of Content Would Be in this Blog?

This blog is a personal blog masquerading as a lifestyle-oriented piece of work. So while it is definitely something for shameless self-promotion, it aims to share useful tips, articles and opinions along the lines of…

• Bachelor Living in Metro Manila.
• Living Life Easier - Work-life Balance Tips and other useful bits of info to get the most out of our 24 hours a day.
• Workplace Woes and Worries- Don’t quit your day job- but don’t let your lif